


Burnout

by unendingexhaustion



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Disabled Character, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Gen, Major Character Injury, Mild Gore, PTSD, Psychological Trauma, accidental violence, biological superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 18:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7233952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unendingexhaustion/pseuds/unendingexhaustion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amalan finds herself in a desperate situation in an unfamiliar city after a horrible accident forces her to leave her home. Enter Julkaz and Somu, who provide her with security and a sense of belonging. But when Julkaz's sticky fingers land him in a dangerous situation, can Amalan find it within herself to move past her traumas and embrace her abilities in the name of saving her friend?</p><p>Written for Shared Worlds creative writing workshop 2k14, published with minor edits and well-reviewed by a professional author.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burnout

**Author's Note:**

> The planet this story is set on and the species Jasm Ka are joint property of the 10 people in the Suevat Prime group at Shared Worlds 2014 BUT I was one of them and nobody else has kept using it so it gets to be my sandbox!

The landlord was yelling. It was definitely something about useless good-for-nothings and a shortage of rent money, but Amalan couldn’t be sure. Everything had blurred together as she and her sparse belongings were unceremoniously tossed out into a back alley in an as yet unfamiliar city. She cast a baleful glare at the back door of the apartment complex and then sighed, retying the bandage coming loose around the empty socket of her left eye and the blackened, cracked area around it, which contrasted darkly with the pale violet of her skin. It was the result of her heat gift backfiring, and a harsh reminder of the problems she had to face. The situation could have been worse, but not by much. She hardly slept anymore due to nightmares, so at least she had been awake when the landlord had come by.  
So far, she had been unable to find anyone willing to hire a damaged worker who can’t control their dangerous gift. To top it off, the money she brought with her to the city in her desperate, terrified flight from her home had finally run out in the middle of last week. With no hint of any sort of rent money forthcoming, her landlord had decided to give her rooms to “someone with an actual source of income.” This apparently involved banging on her door two hours before dawn and bodily removing her and her things. Thankfully, nothing was too damaged from being thrown around, and after packing her scattered belongings into her bag, she settled down against the chitinous wall of the building among the scattered piles of refuse. She tried to come up with a plan for what to do next, but found herself instead reflecting on the sudden destruction of her life, her large bioluminescent spots glowing in the grey predawn light.  
She hadn’t wanted to come to the city, but the tiny country settlement where she had lived before was no longer safe for her people, the Ka Bakar. The humans there had 

held on tightly to the values and fears of their ancestors, and the Ka Bakar had remained distrustful of them as a result. Almost a month ago, somebody had started a fight between the two species that had escalated with horrifying speed. The late evening was rent with screams, as metal tore into Ka Bakar flesh and humans writhed in the grip of the other species’ powerful magical gifts. All the Ka Bakar had either fled the settlement or been killed, and the humans had also suffered serious losses. Amalan had been one of the relatively lucky ones, able to duck into her home and grab supplies before attempting to run away. She had been cornered by a group of humans, and in her fear had unleashed a wave of scorching, shriveling heat on instinct. That had been her gift’s first strong manifestation, and its unexpected power had burnt up the part of the left side of her face and destroyed her eye before she could shut it down. She had dragged herself to a hiding place with her blue blood leaking from her injuries, patched herself up as best she could, and decided to go to the city in an attempt to get as far away from her home as possible.  


The small apartment had been a godsend, with a low rent and a landlord that wouldn’t ask questions. It was in a seedy, rundown part of the city, and Amalan hadn’t felt quite right living there at first, but it had quickly become a safe haven in the unfamiliar world of city life. Now, she didn’t even have that. No job, no money, no home, and most importantly, nobody who could teach her how to keep a tighter grip on her gift. She shuddered against the smooth, cold surface of the building and summoned a small burst of heat to warm the wall behind her. The thought of her gift breaking loose again terrified her. It had been like being swept along in a flood, burning heat pouring out of her body until it had begun to consume her as well. She had been helpless, a vessel for something stronger than she had ever imagined her gift could be. The sensations of that moment began to overcome her, and she knew that this wasn’t going to end well. Amalan could feel the cold of the wall at her back still, but the memories of the Attack, as she had started to call it, were pulling her in and the sensations of the real world were growing fainter, changing, beginning to blend together with aspects of remembered horrors.  


Suddenly, the wall behind her no longer belonged to a rundown apartment complex, but the home of one of her old neighbors. Amalan could smell the tang of his blood through the open window, and the ring of humans was closing in. She could name every one of them. Steven, Antony, Johann, Ivan… all people she had seen, worked with, talked to, knew. They were closing in, crude weapons dripping with blue blood and yelling threats and insults at her, and then her mindless animal terror had brought her gift surging out of her in an uncontrollable flood. The chitin wall behind her was peeling from the sudden intense heat, and she could smell the flesh of her attackers burning as it blackened and cracked, all life around her withering and burning. Amalan’s mind raced faster and faster, unable to distinguish memory from reality and she knew them and she had heard their screams and she had killed them and then her face was burning and she was screaming along with her killer-victims, searing agony taking over all aspects of her mind.  


A cool hand on her shoulder snapped her violently back to reality, the reality of her screams echoing through the alleyway and hot tears of fear and guilt dripping down her face. She vaguely heard a male voice asking her if she was ok, did she need help, but it was as if her rescuer was somehow inhabiting a different plane of existence so far removed from her own that he could barely reach her at all. She retched and vomited into the trash beside her, and his hands were holding back her green-black hair as she tried to clear the sweet scent of charred meat from her nose. Firmly grounded in the real world again, she seized the chance to properly see her rescuer for the first time.  


He was a Ka Bakar like her, with pale green-white hair and purple skin with barely any bioluminescent spots. He wore a loose grey shirt with a wide neckline that exposed the breathing vents under his collarbones, a pair of brown pants with more pockets than anybody could possibly need, and sturdy black boots. Everything about him practically stank of someone who was up to no good, from his many bulging pockets to the way he had been sneaking about before anyone with a decent work shift would be up. His angular face would have added to the effect, but it’s hard to look threatening when you’re obviously concerned for someone.  
Amalan decided that it would definitely be polite to introduce herself to him at this point, as she could tell from his expression that her wordless staring was making him uncomfortable. The sooner formalities were over, the sooner both of them could go their separate ways, and to Amalan, being alone was better than being pitied by a complete stranger.  


“I’m Amalan. Thanks for helping me out, but I’m fine now.” He didn’t move, only bared his sharp teeth in a smile and squatted down beside her in the alleyway.  


“I’m Julkaz. Also, I don’t think you’re really fine at all, considering how you were just shrieking like someone was trying to murder you and then threw up in an alleyway.”  


Amalan glowered at him and growled, “I’ll be the judge of my own mental state, thank you very much. Also,” she added sarcastically, “do you mind telling me exactly how you know what attempted murder sounds like?”  
Julkaz leaned forward and whispered, “I kill people for a living.” She couldn’t tell whether or not he was joking, and suddenly his smile didn’t seem quite so friendly. Then all at once he was laughing and leaning back against the wall behind them.  


“Oh, you should have seen your face!” He said, still giggling quietly. “Also, just so we’re clear, I don’t actually kill people, I just steal their stuff.” Julkaz’s voice trailed off as he saw that Amalan seemed to be on the verge of bursting into frustrated tears and the air around her was getting uncomfortably warm. It was at this point that he made the connection between her gift and the burns on her face, and he knew from experience that the gifts of distressed Jasm Ka can erupt violently and unexpectedly. He didn’t want to push her any farther, and so he decided to take a gentler approach to talking with her than his usual obnoxious antics.  


“All jokes aside,” he said quietly, “you look like you’ve had a rough day already and the sun isn’t even up yet. And for what it counts, I’m sorry. At least let me walk you home.” He stood, holding out his hand to help her up. Amalan didn’t even reach for it, instead choosing to pull her knees up to her chest and hide her face in them. Her voice was muffled and choked up as she told him that until less than an hour ago, the building behind them had been her home. He had seemed shocked by that revelation, but he sat back down next to her and listened as she spilled the story of her arrival in the city, with certain parts such as the Attack purposefully omitted. There was a long, heavy silence after she finished. Neither Amalan nor Julkaz knew what to say and nobody wanted to be the first to speak.  


Eventually, Julkaz broke the silence. “My landlady has another couple of rooms she was looking to rent out, and she’s got a weakness for helping people. She might let you live there while you look for a job. She helped me out, and now look! I’m almost verging on being a useful member of society. I’m still working on the stealing habit though…” Amalan returned his smile in a watery, slightly less maniacal fashion, and this time when he offered his hand, she took it.  


The walk to Julkaz’s home was fairly long. The city that they lived in was divided between humans and Jasm Ka, with a tentative no-man’s-land located between the two. Amalan’s apartment complex had been in a very shady part of the Jasm Ka district, and Julkaz had only been in the area at the time because he was trying to sell off his night’s haul of pilfered items from the human part of the city before their original owners could figure out that they were missing. He told her stories and demonstrated his camouflage gift as they walked, and she was surprised to find herself warming up to him and his reckless sense of adventure, not to mention his usually rather tasteless jokes.  


Their destination was a medium-sized house in a working class neighborhood that was much more respectable than Amalan’s old home. The door was answered by an intimidating woman who turned out to be the landlady. She introduced herself as Somu, she was at least a foot taller than Amalan, and used her gift of sensing and projecting emotions along with physical skills in breaking up fights at the bar she worked at, resulting in an intimidatingly muscular physique. However, she had a friendly, kind personality and was more than willing to offer her spare rooms to Amalan after Julkaz explained her situation.  


After some negotiation, Amalan convinced Somu to let her take over some of her household chores in exchange for letting her stay there. Slowly a routine developed as time passed, a familiar routine of dusting and dishwashing and yelling at Julkaz to “Pick up your dirty laundry, for the last time!” At first, Amalan tried her hardest to stay out of the way and was either coldly polite or surly, but as she grew more comfortable with her new housemates she began to be more open and friendly with them.  


Somu could often pull Amalan out of her flashbacks by sensing her growing distress and sending her positive emotions to counteract the ones in her memories. The damage to her psyche began to heal, and Amalan’s nightmares eased as she got used to city life and the Attack grew father away in her mind. It was still awful, but the memories no longer constantly threatened to overwhelm her every waking moment with fear and guilt. However, Amalan was still chronically afraid of using her gift for anything larger than heating a teakettle, and stubbornly refused to tell her housemates the full reason why. They had both figured out that her fear must be related to the injury on her face, but neither wanted to push her on the subject, seeing how little provocation it took for her gift to come rising to the surface.  


In the few weeks that Amalan had lived in this ragtag household, she had learned that Julkaz took his legal job at the shop down the street from their home just as seriously as his illegal habit. It wasn’t unusual for him to sneak out in the night to steal and not return until the next evening but he would always make sure to work his shift. One day when Julkaz failed to make his usual noisy appearance at the breakfast table, Somu and Amalan weren’t particularly worried, even when their friend didn’t show up all day. In the late evening, there came a knock on the door. It was Julkaz’s boss.  


“Is everything all right?” He asked. Both women looked at each other in confusion.  


“As far as I know, it’s all fine here…” Amalan answered, trailing off when she noticed the worried expression on the other’s face. “Is there something wrong?”  


“I don’t know.” He answered. “Have either of you seen Julkaz at all today? He didn’t show up for his shift.” That had never happened before, and for it to happen now was a worrying revelation.  


“No, we haven’t seen him since last night. Don’t worry though, we’ll find him.” Only the paleness of Somu’s face betrayed her worry, the tone of her voice confident and strong.  


Somu immediately went to interrogate to his friends after hearing the news, and learned that he had been planning to break into the house of a particularly rich human simply to say that he’d done it. Amalan swore, and realized that Julkaz must have picked this particular human because of how tight his security was. Mr. Robert Kier was a wealthy descendant of one of the original leaders of the humans, and his home was full of valuable objects.  


Legend in the Jasm Ka thief community had it that anyone who tried to steal from Mr. Kier would be caught, and that nobody who was caught by him ever returned home. He was also famous for disliking non-humans with a passion. Julkaz wouldn’t have been able to resist trying to rob him once he heard it couldn’t be done, so he must have been planning this for a while. It was in his nature to attempt reckless, stupid things, and trying to rob this human was both. Both she and Somu had constantly told him that he was going to get himself in trouble one day, and it looked like that unfortunate prophecy had finally come to pass. He must have gotten caught by Mr. Kier, and both humans and Jasm Ka knew that making a man like him angry was very, very dangerous. Nobody had ever gotten out after attempting a robbery, but rumors of the things he did to thieves, especially nonhuman ones, abounded and none of them were at all pleasant.  


That night, a small group had gathered in the living room of Somu’s house to discuss the plan to retrieve Julkaz from the mess that he’d gotten himself into, and tempers were rising rapidly. “We can’t go tonight! It’s too dangerous! There’d be even more guards on patrol than usual!” “Well if we wait till tomorrow night, he could be dead by the time we even get there! We have to go now!” The noise level in the room was verging on unbearable until Somu stood up and bellowed in the voice she used to be heard above bar fights, “EVERYONE QUIET DOWN OR ELSE!”  


The room fell silent immediately. Somu sat back sown calmly and said, “I have a plan. If you have anything to contribute, please wait until the end and do not interrupt.” This last part was said in a dangerous whisper. Suddenly she continued on in a normal voice. “I understand that everyone is in a panic and that the situation is extremely urgent, but if we don’t listen to each other nothing is going to happen. Everybody clear on that?” Nods of assent came from around the room. “Good. Here’s the plan. We’ll go tomorrow night because we need Mr. Kier to let his guard down at least a little bit. He’ll be too paranoid tonight for us to try anything. I know it’s a big house, but fewer people means there’s less likelihood of setting off a trap. Amalan and I will go in alone and the rest of you will provide distractions, hopefully with your gifts. That way you’ll be kept out of the way of most physical danger.” Somu continued to speak for some time, but Amalan had stopped listening at the point when she had said that they would go find Julkaz together. The details of Somu’s plan faded into background noise as Amalan began to panic.  


“Can they not see that I’ll only get everyone killed?” she thought. “I’ll only get in the way, and my left side is one massive vulnerable blind spot!” Her heart began to beat fast and her thoughts speeded up. “What if guards attack us and I don’t see them coming?” By this point she was frozen, breathing quickly and shallowly. “What if they kill Somu? What if Julkaz is already dead? What if I have to kill people? What if I end up massacring them like I did to the humans from the settlement?” Amalan struggled to turn her thoughts away from that path but failed. “What if my gift gets loose again and I murder everyone and it destroys me?”  


She could see the scene all too clearly in her mind’s eye. The surrounding were undefined, the guards closing in on her friends were only dark shapes, but that didn’t help when shimmering waves of heat began to distort the air, completely out of her control. Amalan could feel the imagined scene beginning to pull the memories and sensations of the Attack back to the surface, and pinched herself hard on the arm in the hopes that the disconnected pain would help ground her in the here-and-now. Thankfully, it worked. Somu was still talking, and Amalan raised her hand quietly from her spot in the corner of the room.  


“Somu, I can’t go in with you.”  


Somu looked puzzled. “Why not? You’re smaller and more agile than me, and your hearing should more than compensate for your eye. I could stay on your left side if that would help.”  


Amalan looked at the ground. “I don’t know if I’d be able to hold up in a situation like that. Actually, I don’t think I could… I’ll mess up and then people who shouldn’t get hurt will be. They might even die! I could endanger everyone and maybe we’d never even see Julkaz again!”  
Somu snorted. “Nonsense! There’s nobody I’d rather have with me! Well, out of who’s here…” She looked away. “I guess I’ve gotten used to operating in a team of three. You’ve got a strong, useful gift, probably the tightest hold on it than anyone else here, and I will not believe that we won’t get him back.”  
Amalan’s eyes widened. “My gift is the reason I can’t go! You see my face, right?” She gestured frantically at the bandages covering the left side of her face even though the wound was mostly healed. “That happened because I couldn’t control my gift! I just wanted to get away but I was cornered and it just exploded out and killed a bunch of humans, and if I go in with you it might happen again! I’m scared and I just don’t want to lose either of you.” Her voice trailed off, and Somu quickly came over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  


“Did nobody ever tell you? That’s a natural defense mechanism. When you’re afraid or in danger, your gift can erupt. We see it all the time here in the city, with all the muggings and gang wars and whatnot. I guess people out in the distant settlements wouldn’t have to use it all that often, and maybe your settlement just assumed they’d never need that knowledge. Also, if the people who cornered you triggered that level of a reaction, chances are that they would have killed you if given the chance. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to feel guilty, but remember, you wouldn’t be alive right now if it hadn’t happened, and who knows how many more they could have murdered.” Somu gave Amalan’s shoulders a comforting squeeze and continued. “Anyway, even if it did happen again, you’d probably have a much better chance of controlling it considering how you’ve been ruling your gift with an iron fist recently. I really do want you with me on this, ok? You’re the one I’m most familiar with, and I meant it when I said that there was nobody else I’d rather have with me.”  


Amalan took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”  


It was the dead of night and the small number of Jasm Ka who had decided to help retrieve Julkaz from Kier had gathered outside of Somu’s small house. There were fifteen of them counting Amalan and Somu. All wore dark clothing, and those with large, bright bioluminescent spots like Amalan’s had covered them with paint. The top set of pupils and irises in their eyes were exposed to take full advantage of what little light there was as they moved quietly through the dark streets until they reached the border of the city’s trading district, the dotted blue and brown line marking no-man’s-land between the humans and the Jasm Ka. Somu had been elected the unofficial leader, and when she turned to face the group they fell silent.  


She spoke quietly, even though the streets of the trading district were deserted. “This is it. Either we come back with Julkaz or we don’t come back at all. I’m not claiming that I have any idea of what’s in there or even if all of us will make it back alive, but once I get there, I know that I’m not going anywhere until he’s been found.” She spoke with quiet determination in her eyes and steel in her voice. “You don’t have to go with me, but if you’re not coming I suggest you go home now. Once you cross this dotted line, there will be no turning back.” With that, Somu turned and stepped over the border, looking back at the group.  


Amalan was the first to join her, crossing without hesitation. The next to cross was Luken, a thief with a talent for lock picking. “You won’t get far without me, now will you?” He said, with a grim smile. With his decision, more people hesitatingly crossed until the entire group was on the other side of the district border. It was much easier traveling through the trading district as it was purely commercial. Even in the middle of the night in a residential area there’s always a risk of being seen. The group kept to the trade district until they were the closest they could get to Kier’s house without entering the human district. If crossing from Jasm Ka territory into no-man’s-land had been frightening, the crossing into human territory was a whole new degree of terror. Both species were supposed to stay in their respective districts at night to cut down on the crime rate, but the punishment if they were found would be far less if they remained in neutral territory than if they were caught in the district belonging to the other species.  


On the Jasm Ka side, there had simply been a line to mark the border. On the human side, there was a high wall with gates set into it at various intervals. Amalan stared up at it in disgust. It was obviously meant to be a deterrent for people like them, but it was made of rough stone that made for incredibly easy climbing. One by one, the Ka Bakar group slipped over the wall like shadows and landed in the darkened, empty street on the other side. They moved unnoticed through back alleys and narrow streets until the city unexpectedly opened up around them. Mr. Kier’s family was descended from one of the leaders who had come to Kona from Earth, the dying home planet of the humans, and he still held political power among them. The house that his ancestor had built was massive, and the descendents had not allowed the city to encroach on the house’s grounds as it grew.  


Clumps of trees and various other landscaping features scattered the grounds behind a tall fence, and the house itself was surrounded by a low wall easily visible in the light reflecting off the asteroids. There was a gate with a very complicated lock set into the fence. “It must be a service entrance,” Somu whispered, “can’t have the gardener using the main gate now, can we?” Luken made his way to the front of the group. “I told you I’d be useful.” He said as he began to work on the lock. After what seemed like eternity, Luken grinned as the lock popped open. “I guess they weren’t joking when they said Kier is serious about his security!” He said as he brushed his hands off and put his picks away. The group filed through and took shelter behind one of the nearby tree groves.  
Somu gathered them all close together and began to whisper. “Ok, this is where it gets interesting.” She said, wide eyes flickering between each of them in turn. “We went over this already, but I’ll say it one more time just to make sure that everyone’s clear. Split up into your groups and hide around the perimeter of the house. Try to distract the guards as much as possible when you see the signal. Amalan, come with me. We’re going to do some reconnaissance, I’ll give the signal, and then we’ll locate Julkaz and get out of here.”  


The house was even more intimidating up close. It was also bigger than they had originally thought, as was the wall surrounding it. In fact, it would have been better classified as a mansion rather than a house in the first place. Amalan and Somu were crouched under a decorative overhang in the wall, and they could hear the conversation of the guards above them just as clearly as if they were right next to them. Neither of them dared to breathe as one guard said, puzzled, “I could’ve sworn I heard something!” Somu had her eyes closed tightly and her fists clenched. She only did that when she was trying to be particularly careful with her gift. If done right, Somu could project emotions into the subconscious so carefully that the target thought that they were their own feelings. Somu could feel the guard standing above her becoming unsure of himself. It was working! The two women under the overhang heard his footsteps move on down the wall.  


Somu tensed, and then sprinted in the direction of a nearby bush before Amalan could stop her. A shot rang out, and Amalan saw her friend fall in a spray of blood, almost as if in slow motion. She almost ran, but forced herself to stay hidden as the guard came jogging back towards her with his gun ready. Thankfully, Somu had fallen in the shadow of the bush that she had been trying to reach, and Kier was biased enough that he had only hired human guards. If Somu stayed still, then the guards’ pathetic night vision would keep her safe provided he didn’t decide to take a closer look. Amalan shrunk back in her hiding place as the guard hopped down from the wall directly in front of her. She held her breath as he walked over to the bush and prodded it with his gun. “Stay still stay still whatever you do don’t move!”She thought in a panic, staring intently at the bush and her heart stopped as she saw it shake slightly.  


Without warning, a small tree-dwelling creature popped out of the bush and skittered across the lawn. The guard relaxed, and walked back towards Amalan’s hiding place. She pulled herself as far back as she could in the shadowy alcove, adrenaline thrumming through her veins. The guard didn’t even think to look under the overhang he was using as a step, and soon vanished around the corner. Amalan quickly scanned the area for danger, then ran as fast as she could to Somu’s bush.  
Somu was sprawled face down on the ground, her blood black in the pale light of the stars. She groaned quietly as Amalan tried to turn her over and get a better look at her i

njury. The bullet had gone straight through her right shoulder, and her blue blood was still pouring out to stain the ground. Amalan began removing the bandages covering her left eye and cheek. She wore them now to keep her eye hidden rather than to keep it from bleeding, and she figured that Somu needed them more than she did. “So what if I scare someone? Good. They should be afraid.” She thought as she wrapped the bandages neatly around Somu’s shoulder and tied them tightly. Somu let out a little gasp of pain and opened her eyes. “Hey,” she said weakly, “that hurt.”  


Amalan gripped her by her good shoulder and leaned in close. “You have to stay here. I’ll keep going. Just keep putting pressure on that and don’t die before we get out of here. You can send out the signal now too, I’ll make sure to come here when it’s over so you can let everyone else know when it’s time to run.” Somu nodded. It took some effort, but the pulse of anger that the members of the group would recognize as the signal was sent out.  


As the guards ran to investigate the sudden and varied disturbances all around the house’s grounds, Amalan left Somu hiding behind her bush, vaulted gracefully over the wall, and snuck through a small inconspicuous door in the side of the house that opened onto a kitchen. The door on the other side of the kitchen looked down a long, dark hallway. Amalan pressed herself into a corner of the room and thought. “Now, if I was a wealthy xenophobic politician, where would I keep my prisoners? They would have to be hidden; Kier throws parties for the rich and powerful humans all the time and it would cause a massive stink if official word got out about it. Where are party guests not allowed to go? Private rooms, kitchens, servant’s quarters, basement…It has to be the basement. They’re messy, dirty, cluttered, gross…why would anyone ever want to go down there unless they absolutely have to?” With a destination now in mind, Amalan darted across the room and into the dark hallway, carefully checking for doors that lead down. The servant’s dining room yielded a crudely drawn charcoal map of the house, but every other room in that hallway was useless.  


If the map was accurate, the door to the basement was across the house near the master bedroom. There was an asterisk on the drawing of the basement door that directed the reader to a note about shelving instability and mold, and conveniently told all servants that the basement was strictly off-limits on the orders of Mr. Kier himself. Amalan smiled, but as she was about to continue on, she heard the pounding of heavy boots rapidly coming closer. The servant’s dining room was frustratingly empty, and the door was wide open. Her eyes darted around the room and finally fell on the table, with its tablecloth that would shield anyone lying flat across the chairs from view. The owner of the footsteps was checking every room, and Amalan had barely scrambled into her hiding place when the searcher reached the open door. Clumping, heavy footsteps took the searcher into the room, and Amalan had no idea where they would check. Her heart was pounding and her breath caught in her throat as the searcher approached the table. She caught a glimpse of their spotless black boots as they stopped in front of her, and struggled to come up with a plan of what she would do if she was found. Abruptly, the searcher turned and walked out, moving on to other rooms farther down the hallway. Amalan let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding, but remained in her hiding place until she couldn’t hear the searcher any more.  


The journey through the house was long, difficult, and fraught with danger. Amalan was nearly caught and killed by guards several times, and also barely escaped having a barely-domesticated beast of a kind she had never before seen tear her to pieces. At last, she finally stood outside the basement’s locked door. The door stood at the center of a t-shape formed by two hallways, and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise at the thought of having to turn her back on an unsafe hall. With her back against the door, she slid her hand along its smooth surface until it met with a cool lump of protruding metal. It was the lock. Amalan cupped her hand around it and concentrated hard. Heat welled up from inside her and traveled from her palm into the metal, increasing steadily until the locks’ inner workings had melted and liquefied. The door opened behind her with a gentle push, and she slipped inside without a sound. It opened into the top of a dimly lit staircase, and the stone steps led down into a darkness that was reminiscent of a gaping maw ready to swallow her alive.  


Amalan picked her way down the stairs and opened her eyes wide to fully utilize the limited light. As she descended, she noted that they were suspiciously clean for supposedly being off-limits. The area around the base of the stairs was suspiciously empty of the things one would expect from a basement, and the air was heavy with the scent of blood. A single dim light hung from the ceiling but kept the edges of the room deep in shadow. Nausea overtook her as she noticed the red and purple bloodstains splattering the floor. Her heart sank. She had been hoping that somehow Julkaz had escaped on his own, maybe hiding somewhere in a dark corner biding his time, waiting for a chance to make a break for it. He obviously hadn’t.  


“Julkaz? Are you here?” Amalan called into the darkness, but no reply came. She backed up into the dark until she bumped into the room’s slightly sticky wall. She cringed, but felt her way along it until she came to a door. It was made from the same heavy wood as the door to the basement and the lock was again set on the outside. Amalan decided against melting the lock for now, instead choosing to make a circuit around the room and find out how many doors there were. The supply of power her gift gave her wasn’t infinite by any means, and she had already exhausted part of her reserves. If she used too much, she would lose her abilities until they recharge with energy from the symbiotic microbes inside her. She finished the circuit and sighed. Six cells in the room, limited power reserves (the majority of which should be saved for the practically inevitable run-in with the guards), and one friend to rescue who is hopefully unconscious and not dead. Amalan’s overall outlook on the situation was grim. She couldn’t help but remember that her friends outside could be dying with every minute she wasted, but that didn’t change the fact that she had no course of action.  


She collapsed onto the dirty floor of the basement, feeling as helpless and overwhelmed as the day she first met Julkaz. Didn’t she tell people that she wouldn’t be able to do this? He and Somu were her best friends, and now her incompetence was threatening to get them all killed! Amalan stared around the room hoping for something, anything, to give her an answer as to what to do next. Her gaze suddenly fell on a small puddle of blue in front of the first cell to her left. She leapt to her feet and ran to the door. The blood was still fresh, and that could only mean one thing. “He must still be alive!” She thought elatedly as she channeled her power into the lock and melted it, the metal dripping down and mingling with Julkaz’s blood, blue and silver swirling together. “Or he could have died recently enough for his blood to still be wet. He could’ve died while I sat and did nothing…” The grim, pragmatic side of herself reminded her as she pushed open the door.  


Julkaz was slumped in the corner of the cell, barely visible in the darkness. She was at his side in an instant, frantically pushing up his sleeve to check for a pulse. A deep sigh of relief escaped her lips when she found it beating steadily under her fingertips. Assured that her friend was alive, Amalan took the chance to assess the situation. Julkaz was covered in ugly bruises and cuts, and his shirt was soaked through with blood in places, but overall the damage seemed mild enough compared to the nasty rumors of what Kier did to thieves. Amalan dragged him into the main room of the basement, lay him down on his back and hoped that he would wake up soon, because there was no way that she could carry him through the house and across the lawn to safety by herself.  


Amalan was lost in thought, staring at her friend’s unconscious form and struggling not to cry. She hadn’t noticed the head wound that had matted his hair down with blood until they were in the light, and she knew that head injuries could have disastrous effects. “Somu could have carried him out of here. She could have driven the guards away with her gift and gotten here much sooner! I don’t even know if she’s alive right now…I could have stopped her from darting out like that. If only I had been a little faster we wouldn’t even be in this situation! I should have been the one who was shot.” She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye and snapped to attention, hoping that it hadn’t just been a trick of the light. Julkaz twitched again, groaned, and opened his eyes, squinting against the light. Amalan leaned over him and grinned with relief. “I thought that you were never going to wake up!”  


“Amalan?” Julkaz asked, confused. “What are you doing here? And what did you do with the bandages on your face? You look really scary.”  
Amalan got to her feet and pulled him up with her. “Can you run?” she asked.  


“Yeah, I think so.” Julkaz replied, even though simply standing up was causing him to sway on his feet.  


“Good.” Amalan started off towards the stairs, keeping a firm grip on his hand to make sure he didn’t fall. “Once we get up these stairs, we’ll probably need too. The bandages are gone because Somu got shot and she needed them more than I did. Other questions will be answered preferably when we’re all safe at home.”  


If the journey through the house was challenging with one person, it was even harder with two. The difficulty of hiding from the guards increased exponentially with the addition of Julkaz, but the pair made it through most of the house with only a few close calls. The now smudged and crumpled map of the house proved to be invaluable as they struggled to navigate the twisting maze of rooms. They were in an empty hallway leading to the kitchen Amalan had entered through when they heard heavy footsteps approaching from both ends. There was nowhere to hide in the featureless hallway, and Julkaz’s camouflage gift flickered and died as he tried to conceal them both. Amalan’s head began to pound. She was surrounded by humans who want her dead, and there was nowhere left to run. She could feel her gift building inside her, but she didn’t know if she would be strong enough to protect Julkaz from the wave of deadly heat and still keep it under control.  


The guards were shouting to each other and leveling their guns at the unlucky duo caught in between them. Amalan’s mind was blank as she fought to come up with a plan, until she noticed a small gap in the line of guards between them and the kitchen. Fighting the urge to freeze in terror, she tightened her grip on Julkaz’s hand and took off towards the gap, half-dragging him along with her. She shoved one of the guards aside as they ran past, staggering as she released her gift to melt the bullets streaking through the air towards them. Her control didn’t waver, and the melted bullets hit the ground in a spray of liquid metal. The wave of heat left the guards dazed and incapacitated, and Julkaz and Amalan finally made it out into the houses’ grounds.  


The sky outside was beginning to grow brighter, but thankfully, Somu had somehow managed to keep herself alive for all that time behind her bush. The signal to retreat was sent out as soon as she saw that Amalan and Julkaz had returned. The various Jasm Ka who had been distracting and fighting the human guards all suddenly sprinted for the small gate in the fence. Some made it, some didn’t. Somu watched in horror from her hiding place as her lock-picking friend Luken was shot twice in the back as he fled, stumbling and falling limply to the ground in a growing pool of blood. She could tell that other members of the group had heard the shots, but they kept running, knowing that even a moment’s hesitation could lead to a similar fate. Then, she herself turned and ran, making for the gate as fast as she could.  
The battered group didn’t stop running until they reached the wall of the still deserted trading district and scrambled clumsily over the wall. “Okay, there’s one thing I don’t understand.” Julkaz panted, “Why didn’t the guards follow us off the grounds if their employer is so dead set on having trespassers violently killed?”  
“Well first of all,” said Somu, who was gingerly poking at her wounded shoulder, “it would probably get them fired for abandoning their stations; and second, if Kier’s guards were seen chasing us around the city, he’d lose the support of a lot of important and powerful people.”  


Amalan raised her head. “Speaking of people, we should probably get a move on. People will be waking up soon and we need to get back to our own district.” With this, the group continued wearily onward, the adrenaline fading from their systems and leaving them all exhausted as they limped towards home.  


Even as time passed, the shadow of that night’s events hung heavily over the Jasm Ka community. News of Luken’s death had spread rapidly and quietly, passing under the radar as Mr. Kier and his staff struggled to cover up the security breach that he had been part of. Julkaz had become much more subdued, and it was obvious to all who knew him that he blamed himself for Luken’s demise. A life for a life. It just wasn’t fair! It was supposed to have been a rescue, with all parties involved returning home safely, but instead, one had died to save the other. Julkaz felt the weight of the tragedy more personally than many others, but a similar attitude was shared by many. Whispers were passing amongst the Jasm Ka, rumors of insurrection bubbling underneath a deceptively placid surface, fuelled by anger and grief and guided from the shadows by Somu and Amalan, who kept their involvement as secret as they could. Nobody had been pleased by Mr. Kier from the start, but this was one step too far and the Jasm Ka were finally ready to teach him and his allies that the hard way. It would be dangerous if the names of the leaders were discovered but they persisted regardless, Amalan’s need for justice and Somu’s leadership was pushing the Jasm Ka onward, towards an uncertain future that would doubtless be very different from the present, but only time would tell whether or not the changes were for the better.

**Author's Note:**

> I have more content from this 'verse, and I would be open to expanding this story as well. Let me know if you want to see more! 
> 
> Also if you want me to continue this should i leave amalan/somu/julkaz platonic or have a poly triad? (or even a different ship?) specify if you have an opinion~


End file.
